1845 Advertisement for John Herdman’s Emigrant Passage Office, with Letter Offering Commission for Finding Clients.
New York City: April 1845. Two printed pages measuring 9 ¾ x 11 ½ inches, one signed. Folded and slightly wrinkled, near fine. Item #List2995
A circular advertising passage between Great Britain and Ireland and numerous locations in the United States, from Boston to New Orleans, by a regular packet ship service managed by John Herdman and Company. The company also offered remittances, whereby an individual in the US could send money to a friend or relative back across the Atlantic, generally to pay for their passage to the States.
The second sheet, a signed letter, offers a commission for finding customers: five percent of the passage fare and one percent of the remittance money. In 1845, the Great Famine in Ireland was just beginning, and Ireland would lose a large proportion of its population not just to starvation but also to emigration. Earning commission on remittances could have been quite lucrative: the National Museum of Ireland estimates that the amount sent back to Ireland in remittances between 1845 and 1854—the height of the famine—reached $19 million.
Price: $600.00